Collège nordique francophone recently invited French-language educators in the Northwest Territories to participate in a fish camp to teach them about how Dene educators teach. At the camp, educators learned about topics such as Indigenous-Crown relations, residential schools, and fish filleting. Course instructor Lila Fraser Erasmus said that the Dene way of teaching includes modelling a skill such as filleting a fish while teaching about topics that can be used in other areas of life, such as patience and respect. Fraser Erasmus said that Dene do not see themselves as having a superior role to the land, and that it is important for children’s teachers to know about this worldview. “If our elders could design our health, our education, and our justice systems, that would look very different,” said Fraser Erasmus. “These systems out here are intended to promote or to instill colonial values into everyone. So we want to be able to bring resources to the classroom.”
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